"First, and most importantly, I strongly believe that we in the Diaspora do not have the right to weigh in on what Israel should do or not do. We in the Diaspora do not have to live with the consequences of decisions made by Israel in conducting internal policy matters. I would not want the Israeli government or its citizens to suggest to the American government how to resolve the many internal issues we Americans have to deal with."
in its reply to the editorial column below
"Think again before deporting Africans."
Suing supporters of Palestinian rights for $156 million trebled (tripled) from $52 million for compensation from allegedly similar supporters of the allegedly Hamas-supported murderer of USA citizen David Boim, also indicates the consequences of Israeli "internal" policy that Americans live with (and die from) that contradicts Toby Gottesman's denial with the position ‘support Israel’s government policy or move there’ a complementary inversion of the Republican Party and far-right, ‘patriotic,’ ’America love it or leave it’ view.
David Boim was murdered
In 1996, 17-year-old David Boim was standing at a bus stop in the Israeli settlement Beit El, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, when he was shot dead in a drive-by attack.
Eleven years earlier, David’s parents, Stanley and Joyce Boim, had moved to Jerusalem from New York. The whole family maintained dual American-Israeli citizenship.
In 2000, the Boims became the first US citizens to use federal anti-terrorism laws to accuse Islamic charities in the US of being fronts for a designated terrorist group (in this case, Hamas) in order to hold the organizations liable for the murder of their son.
Three days after David Boim was killed at the Israeli settlement, 24-year-old Amjad Hinawi turned himself in to the Palestinian Authority. Hinawi admitted that he was in the car with Khalil Sharif, also 24, when Sharif opened fire on Boim and the others standing at the bus stop, but maintained that he did not know Sharif’s plans.
Just a year after Boim’s slaying, Sharif, a member of Hamas who had evaded the Palestinian Authority’s attempts to find him, carried out a suicide attack in Jerusalem.
In February 1998, Hinawi was convicted by a Palestinian military court for being an accomplice in the slaying of Boim and sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor. Hinawi did not complete the prison time, however, because he absconded while on furlough shortly after he was sentenced. In 2005, he was killed by the Israeli military, which claimed he was reviving Hamas’ infrastructure in Nablus.
by a Palestinian claiming responsibility in Hamas' name in 1996, in the internationally-illegal Israeli settlement, Beit El for Jewish-Israeli citizens only, that Israel alone may classify as part of Jerusalem's city boundaries that have been expanded to include some illegal settlements with religiously-segregated residency requirements.
The 20% of Israeli citizens who aren't Jewish (Christian, Muslim and Druze among other demographic classifications qualifying for citizenship) are not allowed to live in West Bank settlements.
If non-Jewish residents were allowed to live in West Bank/Judea and Samaria/Occupied Palestinian Territory OPT (three names for the same land area) settlements they probably would not choose to because of Jewish settlement residents who show their bigotry, prejudice and hatred by applying the label to anyone not Jewish, in their immediate surroundings, as an 'Arab.'
After an appeal the Boim family lawsuit was reinstated in January 2018 with limited discovery.
The new lawsuit claims that Rafeeq Jaber, Abdelbasset Hamayel and Osama Abu Irshaid established AMP, and a nonprofit funding arm, Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation (AJP), to replace the three organizations found liable for supporting Hamas in 2004.
“AMP and AJP are alter egos and successors of HLF [the Holy Land Fund], AMS [American Muslim Society] and IAP [Islamic Association for Palestine], and are therefore liable for the unpaid portion of the Boim Judgment,” the complaint argues.
The lawsuit does not purport to have any evidence that AMP or the other named defendants are supporting Hamas. Indeed, AMP says it does not conduct any activities abroad.
Nevertheless, the Boims argue that AMP has the “identical” agenda as its alleged predecessors.
“AMP claims on its website that it is ‘all about educating people about Palestine,’ thus continuing the purported purposes of AMS, IAP and HLF,” the complaint states.
Jaber, Hamayel and Abu Irshaid are named because they all had some role in the previously indicted organizations and now work with AMP. None of them was indicted or named in the previous lawsuit.
AMP was founded in 2006 in Chicago with the “sole purpose” to “educate the American public and media about issues related to Palestine and its rich cultural and historical heritage.” It collaborates with groups around the country, including Jewish Voice for Peace, to organize educational events and actions in support of Palestinian rights and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
“They’re trying to say that this is the same group with a different name, but it’s a different group, different philosophy, goals and people,” Deutsch told The Electronic Intifada.
“It’s a continuing attack on Muslim Palestinians.”
Deutsch, who is not representing AMP but is familiar with the case, said that “the whole impetus behind the Boim case was to destroy charitable groups that were helping those suffering under Israeli occupation.
“This is just a continuation of this. They’re going after this group that is successful and active.”
The Boims’ lawyer, Stephen Landes, said allowing AMP to operate “makes a mockery” of federal anti-terrorism laws.
American Muslims for Palestine declined to give a comment for this article.
The Boim case is being revived just as the Trump administration says it will prioritize fighting what it calls terrorism in the US and abroad. How the court handles the resurrection of this precedent-setting lawsuit could usher in a new wave of phony terrorism cases targeting Palestinian activism.
Supporting continued USA wars since Sept 11, 2001 and the Oct 6, 2001 start of war in Afghanistan and 2003 in Iraq as well as USA military involvement (soldiers on the ground wearing boots even as 'advisers') in the post-March 2011 civil war in Syria and by USA Foreign Military Financing supplying the post-2015 Saudi Arabian war on Shi'ite Houthis in Yemen, muzzled from the NY Times column, also indicates how Toby Gottesman’s "We in the Diaspora do not have to live with the consequences of decisions made by Israel in conducting internal policy matters" view is contradicted in USA foreign and counterterrorism policies.
